CALLER: Well, that's the best way to be. I want to comment on something you talked about earlier in your show, and it's just simply this. With Obama putting all the wealthy and all the people with all the great monies in his crosshairs, doesn't he think about the backlash and the repercussions and everything that's going to come as a result of that? I mean, these people have got millions of dollars to spend. Does he expect them not to spend it against him and the folly of the people who advise him?

RUSH: Well, you have to understand what he's doing here. He's doing two things. He is relying on the fact that most people don't earn a quarter of a million dollars or more, and in a time of recession he is hoping to capitalize on an emotion of hatred that they have for the people who make that much. Obama is hoping that he'll get kudos for getting even with these people. He's not gonna make anybody's life any better who makes less than $250 a year. He just wants them to be happy that people who have more than they are are getting screwed. The second thing -- and this is more important, Gerald -- is he is redistributing wealth. It is destroying it for the express purpose of redistributing it to his buddies, primarily the unions -- government and teacher unions, public sector unions -- and minorities. He's returning the wealth of the nation to its, quote, unquote, "rightful owners."

CALLER: All that aside, I only have one statement to that. I don't see near that amount of money per year as my income. But I see that if these people of wealth don't do something about him, we are in trouble. I know I'm going to do whatever I can as modestly as I can, because this man needs to get out of the way. He's killing this country.

RUSH: I totally agree. I totally agree. Let me tell you something about the wealthy, though. They're not going to complain. They will not complain. I once watched This Week with Brinkley when Brinkley hosted it. It was back in the early, mid-nineties. Andy Grove of Intel was on when Bill Clinton had just announced a limit on corporate salaries and their deductibility as a business expense of $1 million. They asked Andy Grove if he thought this was the right policy. He said, "I'm not going to sit here and complain about the amount of money I make and I don't want to get into these social concerns over that. I'd love to tell you about Intel and what we're doing." They don't want to talk about it because these people that are wealthy do not want to be seen as complaining. They think that will only fuel the fire to raise their taxes. Now, they might work in other ways quietly to try to defeat it and so forth, but look: I guarantee you that the vast majority of them, other than those in Hollywood, have the same attitude about this that you do, and they're going to be working hard to find ways around the new tax increases, whatever they are.

There are going to be more to come but this is going to come from "sunsetting" the Bush tax cuts, which is a tax increase. Pelosi says it's not, but it is a tax increase if your top marginal rate is going to go from 36% to 39%, which is big. As I say, when you couple this with state taxes and Medicare tax increases and so forth, you're going to be over -- in some states over -- 50% of your income. Over 50% of your gross is going to be taxed. The wealthy complain about it to themselves, but I can't see 'em complaining about what's going to happen to them. I can see them maybe saying, "This is going to destroy the economy. This is going to hurt my business. I'm never going to be able to hire people. We're not going to be able to grow our business." They might do it that way, but they're not going to complain about the impact on them because nobody's going to have any sympathy for them -- and, as I say: If they do complain, it's just gonna spur other people to support raising taxes on them.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, one thing about this $250,000. I made a bit of a mistake. Ladies and gentlemen, $250,000 is not wealthy. I know that for you families, $250,000, you're not wealthy. But Obama and the Democrats have always called those kind of people "wealthy," and they will. At $250,000 for a family of four, they will complain about their taxes going up. But I do think, depending on how much coverage their complaints get, it will still spur people who don't make that kind of money, "Oh, really? You're complaining? I'm outta work and you're complaining about a tax increase?" They gotta be very careful about how this goes. But yeah, a lot of small businesses are in this category of $250,000, and I think the caller wanted them to organize and do something. A lot of people want somebody else to do something.

Here's Virginia in High Rolls, New Mexico. It's great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello. I'm so honored to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I wanted to mention first, I called to talk about the redistribution of wealth and how I think it's going on already. But I was going to mention to you that I'm also a meteorologist and I don't believe in global warming.

RUSH: Man-made global warming? Exactly right.

CALLER: Yeah, exactly. I've done a little looking into it, and I'm thinking perhaps some minor fluctuations in the magnetic field could cause a little bit of global warming in the Northern Hemisphere, but man-made? No way.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And if anybody ever asks you, say, 'What ended the ice age? Global warming and there were no people there."

RUSH: (laughing) Something had to end it. That's right.

CALLER: Exactly. That was global warming. Maybe it was man's first experiments with fire. I'm not sure. Anyway, just kind of a statement. I found something out. This redistribution of wealth -- and I'm terribly nervous. I apologize.

RUSH: I understand. I've been where you are.

CALLER: I was talking to someone who was filing their taxes, a young couple, and he makes about $15,000 a year. You know, it's not much. But they have two children, right? I asked him how much he paid in his income tax, and he said $143. I said, "How much are you getting back?" And he said $7,000, and I was like, what? "Well, there's earned income credit." They have two children. They get Medicaid. They get food stamps. They get WIC -- which is about I think like milk and cheese and things like that for the kids. So I added it up, and I kind of came out with a rough estimate of about anywhere between $32,000 and $35,000 this couple makes -- and I don't have that much disposable income. I just find it shocking. I'm shocked because it's already happening.

RUSH: It is already happening, and your example is the exact intention that Obama has. That couple is not gonna object to any policy. That couple's not gonna object to any increase in taxes. They're gonna favor increase in taxes because they know they're going to get the money.

CALLER: I'm just floored. I have lumps on my head from banging it against the wall.

RUSH: You know, I got into big trouble on April 1st of 1989 when I suggested that the poor start paying their fair share of taxes. I caught all kinds of hell for that. But, seriously, this is Obama's intention. He wants more and more people to be in that category that you just described.

CALLER: And I have not, in the last ten years, ever gotten a return -- anything back of anything I've paid.

RUSH: Well, it's actually good, because if you had, that just means they're keeping your money for a year with no interest.

CALLER: Right. But I'm actually thinking of doing less work -- and I hate that thought, less work -- because I'm so worried about the tax increases that are coming.

RUSH: Yeah. Less work and you get yourself in that couple's situation, have an income of $15,000 a year and have a disposable income of $32,000.

CALLER: Yep. Well, I appreciate you taking my call.

RUSH: By the way, have you ever tasted government cheese and milk and butter?

CALLER: Well, actually the cheese is pretty good.

RUSH: I remember when I was a kid -- I don't know how this happened -- my dad brought home some government butter, butter that was for welfare recipients. And it was the best butter I'd ever tasted. It wasn't even close. It was astounding to me.

CALLER: When we were eating margarine they're eating butter? Is that what you're trying to say?

RUSH: No, it was better than real butter. Their butter was better than what you got at the store.

CALLER: Yeah?

RUSH: It was in big, round tins, not in sticks. Now, my dad did a lot to educate me on what this was really all about in the welfare community, the welfare world and so forth. And the milk, too. I don't know where he got it because we were not on welfare. I think one of the farmers that was involved in producing it gave it to him. And he made a point, "This is better than what you can get at the store, son. Government just is better." They had whatever their standard requirements are. I don't know, but he made that point. Look, Virginia, you did great. I couldn't even tell you were nervous. I'm glad you called. Thank you so much.